Flash(p)ack Friday!

Stress.  We all cope with it in different ways.  Some people drink.  Other people smoke.  Me?  I eat Baja Fresh and bust packs.

I've been saving some packs for future A Pack To Be Named Later posts, but last night I couldn't resist temptation and dove head first into the pack stack.  It's actually a small shoe box filled with random packs that are either:

A. duplicates for my non-sport wax pack collection
B. oddball packs I find at card shows and flea markets
C. gifts from fellow bloggers

Out of all the packs, I decided to go with some vintage packs.  Okay so maybe these aren't exactly what you define as vintage, but all of the packs are at least twenty-four years old and were the oldest I found in the box.

As luck would have it... there's a variety of sports and non-sports issues, so hopefully there's a little something for everyone.

I decided to rip open the packs in reverse chronological order...

1990 Topps Heads Up!

First up... a nice oddball set from the early 90's.  Have you ever wanted to stick a blown up cardboard face of your favorite baseball player on your bathroom mirror?  If so, this product is for you.  I busted a box of this stuff last year, so I knew what to expect.  And since the checklist is loaded, I knew I'd probably pull a decent player.

#6 Craig Biggio

Not too shabby.  Biggio just missed the HOF cutoff this year... but the lifelong Houston Astro shouldn't have any issues getting in next year.

1986 Topps Garbage Pail Kids (5th Series)

Next up... a pack of our favorite Cabbage Patch doll parodies.  If you're into busting old packs, you might want to stay away from 80's GPK.  I can't speak for all packs out there, but this pack was severely damaged by the gum.

Most of the cards had this brown residue on one of the edges and all of the cards were warping, which caused some of the stickers to start pulling away from the backing.  On the flipside, this pack was like trip down memory lane.  I loved collecting these cards back in middle school.

1986 Topps 3-D Baseball Stars

Here's another oversized oddball issue from Topps.  And just like the Heads Up! product, they were intended to be hung on something like a poster.

#15 Don Mattingly

However these aren't your everyday posters.  These are embossed plastic cards made from the same material vintage Halloween masks from the 80's were made from.  It's hard to see, but Mattingly is popping off of the card.

1981 Topps Animal Posters

Try to hold off on giggling.  This isn't something I'd normally purchase for my collection.  However I found an eBay dealer with a bunch of older packs at reasonable prices, so I took advantage of combined shipping and grabbed them.

#NNO Lioness and Cub

I was secretly hoping to pull the panda poster, so I could hang it up in my classroom.  Yeah.  I like pandas.  Oh well... maybe I'll find a student who loves lions.

1981 Topps Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Photocards

Now this is more my style.  I have never liked the Cowboys and after they marched into Seattle last weekend and knocked off the Seahawks... I like them even less.

#13 Cheer Up, Judy!

But I'm okay with their cheerleaders.

Last... but certainly not least is the pack I was looking forward to busting the most. 

1975 Topps Wide World of Sports

Although I had no idea this product existed, the show was a childhood staple... as was my obsession with stickers.  Combining the two equates to awesome.

#6 Hockey and #14 Skiing

And I couldn't be happier with the two that I pulled.  Well... let's rephrase that.  I really wanted the Muhammed Ali, but I'm not disappointed with what I got.  Hockey rules and skiing is probably the sport I excelled at the most as a child.  Plus if there's one thing I remember from watching ABC's Wide World of Sports, it's the skier wiping out in the show's opener.

Well that's all folks!

What are your thoughts?  Did any of these products catch your attention?

My next Flashpack Friday post will feature more modern packs, but I'll try to include at least one "vintage" pack.

Happy Friday and sayonara!

Two Nice Racks and a Rod

September is one of my least favorite months.  It's notorious for being hot in my neck of the woods.  It's marks the start of a new school year and the end of my summer break.  And since I'm on a ten month salary schedule, it marks the second month in a row without a regular paycheck.  But this year, that didn't stop me from going way over my cardboard budget.

Last month, I sort of went on a cardboard shopping spree that included box breaks, multiple eBay purchases, and several trips to flea markets and card shows.  In fact, I spent nearly four times my usual cardboard budget in September.

Which means that I probably won't be purchasing too many cards until the start of the new year.  But that's okay, because I was pretty excited to cross off two of my all-time favorite sets from my wish list.

#207 X-Rated Version

One of those purchases was the complete five series 1977 Topps Star Wars set.  This is the first card product I ever collected and it will always hold sentimental value.  It's a shame I didn't save any of these cards from my childhood.

I'll keep the other set purchase a surprise for a future post.  In the meantime, I'll wrap up this post with two 1987 Donruss rack packs I recently added to my collection:

It might be hard to see, but each of these racks has a Greg Maddux rookie card sitting on top.  These are welcome additions to my unopened pack collection.  My goal is to eventually pick up a third rack pack with Maddux featured on the left side of the pack.

So wha'cha think?  Nice pair of racks right?  Or do you prefer my golden rod?

Nah... my guess is you guys prefer Rusty Kuntz:

Happy Hump Day and sayonara!

My Blog = My Cardboard History

When I was a kid, I remember learning about Christopher Columbus and his famous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean where he discovered the New World.

Years later, I was told a different story by one of my college professors and it literally rocked my world.

He taught us about the genocide and slave trade surrounding Columbus's visit to Hispaniola... which was information I'm pretty sure my elementary school teachers left out of their lessons.

Topps also failed to add this information to the back of Columbus's 1952 Topps Look 'n See card:

I still wonder why my elementary school teachers felt our young minds were ready to learn about slaves brought over from Africa... but not the ones brought back to Spain.

I also remember learning about the millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis and the barbaric war crimes committed by the Japanese during World War II.  Yet... I never read anything from those teachers about the executions Columbus performed on the Natives.

But I guess that's just part of history.  People tend to remember the information they want passed along... while omitting the stuff they want to forget.

I can totally relate to that.  How often do I show off the 1988 Topps Tony Bernazard card in my collection, compared to my 1956 Topps Jackie Robinson?

Oh... I almost forgot to talk about the actual card in this post.  I picked this card up back in August for 99¢ off of eBay.  I bought this card with a bunch of vintage Japanese cards, because the seller offered combined shipping.

The set was produced by Topps back in 1952 and consists of 135 cards featuring U.S. Presidents, military leaders, inventors, explorers, and other famous people in world history.  The back of each card features a trivia question related to person on the card.  Collectors could use a decoder, made out of red cellophane to reveal the answer... which is why the set is called Look 'n See.

Well... that's enough "history talk" for today.  Happy Monday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #72: Box of Mags and Bag of Balls

When:  Sunday, September 28th

Where:  Capitol Flea Market

What:  Sports Magazines and Golf Balls

How Much?:  $12

The date isn't a mistake and your eyes aren't deceiving you.  I completely forgot to publish this post, so it's a couple of weeks late.  No biggie though.  My purchases that day weren't exactly earth shattering, but I still pretty content with what I walked away with.

Purchase #1:  Box of Sports Magazines $10

My buddy and I were walking around our usual route and hadn't found anything of significance, when we stumbled across a guy with a bunch of sports figures and magazines.  I'm pretty sure it was the same guy who sold me the sports binders a few weeks earlier.

While my friend was checking out the guy's Starting Lineups and comic figures, I waited patiently.  After a minute or so, I jumped in and began digging through boxes and eventually stumbled across this box of magazines:

The box was filled thirty-six sports related magazines that included...

Early issues of Sports Illustrated for Kids,

Super Bowl Programs and a variety of price guides from the early 90's... like Beckett Football, Baseball Cards Magazine, and Baseball Card Price Guide Monthly.

There was also a stack of price guides I had never seen or heard of before called: Dellaferas' Original Football Monthly.  They're pretty thin and don't have a lot of prices, but they included a football card gallery to help collector's identify their cards.

The guy had bought a storage unit and wanted $600 for all of his figures.  That was a bit too much for my buddy.  However he only wanted $10 for this box and after I saw the three Super Bowl Programs, I figured it was worth the price.  The five premier issues of Sports Illustrated for Kids were a nice bonus.

Purchase #2:  Duffel Bag of Golf Balls $2

The final purchase took place in the last section of the flea market... on the very last row.  That turned out to be a blessing, because this bag of balls was heavy and lugging it around the flea market would have been tiring.

Now I know what you're thinking... Do I really need 150+ used golf balls?  Not really.  But I probably buy four to six sleeves each year.  But that means I'll be set for at least the next few years.

I broke down and sorted the balls into four different categories...

Top Tier: Barely Used to New

2nd Tier: Used but Playable

3rd Tier: Practice Balls

And finally...

Bottom Tier:  Damaged and Dirty

These are the kind you let your dog chew on or the balls you tee off into the Pacific Ocean... but for two bucks, I'm not complaining.

Well that's it for now.  If this post was published on time... I should be in the middle of my normal Sunday flea market route.  If I buy anything... let's hope it doesn't take me another two weeks to write up a summary.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

The Holy Grail of Autographed Cards

JBF has been sending out packages to collectors across the continent for years and I've been lucky enough to receive my fair share of them.  But what I received last week is in a league of its own.  

Feast your eyes on the latest addition to my autograph collection:

Yup.  That's an on-card autograph of the most generous blogger I've encountered online.  I'm not sure what's cooler... the custom card using the 1987 Topps baseball card design, the hologram COA on the back, or the fact that Wes is sporting one of the coolest costumes ever.  Hamburglar rules!

Just curious... what's the significance of 2/98?  Is February of 1998 a special month?  Is this card #2 out of 98 in existence?  Enquiring minds want to know.

But of course... he didn't stop there.  He included nearly 100 cards featuring San Diego Padres, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Seahawks, Green Bay Packers, San Jose Sharks, Japanese baseball players, and even a surfer.  Here's a handful of the cards he sent:

Thanks Wes!  I've already put your autograph in a holder and placed it on my desk next to the four other special cards given to me by bloggers and YouTubers over the years.

Wes wasn't the only person to send me a package this week.  I also received one from AJ over at The Lost Collector.

He shipped me a cool Tony Gwynn post card he won off of Listia.  From what I can gather, it was included in one of the issues of Legends Sports back in the late 90's.

Thanks AJ!  The postcard is proudly displayed in one of my Gwynn binders.  I'm a huge fan of oddballs like these.

Ironically my newly acquired autographed custom card of JBF is right across the room from a custom sketch card that AJ sent me a couple of years ago:

Both JBF's autograph and AJ's sketch card are priceless and will be treasured forever.  Thanks guys.  I specifically waited until this weekend to open up your packages in hopes of them turning my week around... and they did.

Once upon a time... Wes encouraged me to pay it forward and that's exactly what I'm going to do.  This afternoon these packages were shipped out.  

Brian... here are the Rangers you wanted from my Chrome and Finest box breaks.

Nick... here's the American Bandstand set I promised you.

And whitney777... thanks for another great CCW trade.  I hope you enjoy the extras.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!